Mobile phone cannot find printer

[villageidiot]

I am trying to print a small spreadsheet from Google Sheets on a mobile phone.

Blackview A7Pro mobile phone, on Android 7.

No land-line connection to the Internet, so no modem/router involved; just the mobile phone 4G connection, plus its Tethering & portable hotspot turned on.

I can download web-pages totally satisfactorily to my laptop computer via the 4G+Tethering link.

HP Envy 4527 printer. According to its touch-screen, it is connected to my wireless network A7Pro, and also Wi-Fi Direct Status is “On”

The printer is switched on. The Wireless Network Test Results shows PASS for all sections - Wireless, Connectivity, Network and Settings. The Network Name (SSID) shows as A7Pro,

I open the spreadsheet, select Menu>Share & export>Print; tap Select a printer>All printers.

I then get a window with the message “Searching for printers”. Unfortunately it stalls at this stage, searching for ever.

If I tap ADD PRINTER>HP Print Service> On a Wi-Fi Network I get a window asking for Preferred printer name and IP Address. There is no help about where I can get these details from.

If I tap “Directly to the Printer” I get a window with the instruction “Select a Printer”, with no indication of where I should select a printer from.

How can I get the searching for a printer to be successful?

[Jay_G24]

Hi @villageidiot

Welcome to the HP Support Community. I'd be happy to assist you

Due to the current global COVID-19 situation, we're seeing an influx of customers coming in for support. We appreciate your patience.

I'm afraid HP does not recommend connecting the printer to the Hotspot due to unstable and intermittent connectivity. The printers are designed to work with Wi-Fi connectivity.
The phone can certainly act as a wireless router when you share the hotspot with other devices. But since it is a phone, the signal strength might not be as strong as the actual router. 
The best way and the recommended way to connect the printer to the network is to use a router as they are designed for the purpose or print via WiFi direct.

Wi-Fi direct is a method that connects your printer directly to your phone or computer using default or an assigned password, the drawback of this type of connection is that you will not be able to access the internet and print at the same time.  

Refer the document for instructions on how to connect -Printing with Wi-Fi Direct

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day! 

[villageidiot · Accepted solution]

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your reply, which is very illuminating and helpful.

For the benefit of anyone viewing this thread because they have the same problem – I have found the solution.

After struggling for the whole of two days trying to get the HP software to work, totally unsuccessfully, I was driven to try a third-party print software on my mobile phone.

I downloaded and installed both PrinterShare and Mopria from the Google Playstore.

These both communicate with the HP Envy 4527 printer perfectly, when I have “Tethering” turned on on the phone.

Yesterday, I could choose from both the normal Wi-Fi connection and the Wi-Fi Direct connection, although tonight I can only get the normal Wi-Fi connection. I suppose I have changed something somewhere.

Incidentally Jay, I have tested my Wi-Fi speeds between:

1. the tethered phone and my laptop computer

2. an Asus DSL-N16 landline router and the laptop computer

3. the printer while switched to Wi-Fi Direct and the computer

The speeds are all the same, downloading at about 230Mbps and uploading at about 130Mbps, so the 2018 Blackview A7Pro phone does not have a network signal weaker than the router. It is actually marginally higher. The phone and the router were in the kitchen, 7m and a couple of walls away from the laptop and the printer.

In conclusion, I find HP to be quite good at the technology, but please could someone work on their common sense and an appreciation of their customers’ requirements. I have never got a solution from the “Help” chatbox yet. This time, I went round and round in circles, when what it should have said is “The HP software has a glitch. HP suggests you try a third-party software until we sort it out.” I still don’t understand why HP seems to need two separate pieces of software to do one job.

Jay – tongue-in-cheek – it’s 2020. I can connect to a WI-Fi Direct printer and the Internet simultaneously, using my smartphone tethered. Where I am, 4G is about 20Mb/s, compared to 1.7Mb/s on the landline, and it’s less than half the annual price. 🙂

[Kumar0307]

@villageidiot

Glad to know that the issue is now resolved. Feel free to contact us with any concerns related to HP products.

Happy to help!